﻿Nomenclatural notes of Frullaniaauriculata (Frullaniaceae) and lectotypification of Porellatakakii (Porellaceae)

﻿Abstract Rediscovery and examination of the type specimen of Frullaniaauriculata S.Hatt. proves that the original type citation of this species contains an error, which is corrected here. Lectotypification for Porellatakakii S.Hatt. is provided.


Introduction
Frullania auriculata S.Hatt., a rare liverwort endemic to Oceania, is known solely from its type collection (N.Kitagawa 23455 ;Hattori 1985;Pócs 2008;Söderström et al. 2011).While reorganizing the bryological collection housed in the Herbarium of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory (NICH 2024), only one specimen (N.Kitagawa 23435) was found, and its holotype (N.Kitagawa 23455) could not be located.Consequently, upon examination of this specimen, it was revealed that Hattori (1985) had utilized it, indicating potential inaccuracies in the citation of the original material in the protologue of F. auriculata, necessitating correction.
Note.Frullania auriculata was described based on a specimen collected from Fiji (N.Kitagawa 23455 ;Hattori 1985).The protologue states, the holotype and isotype of F. auriculata were deposited in NICH and TNS, respectively.However, these types are not included in the catalogue of type specimens (Inoue 1987;Mizutani et al. 2009) or registered in the online databases of either herbarium (https://hattorilab.org/database/; https://type.kahaku.go.jp/TypeDB/search?cls=bryophyta).Recently, I reorganized the bryological collection of NICH and found a suspected type of Frullania auriculata (N.Kitagawa 23435; Fig. 1).This specimen fits all the information provided in the protologue of F. auriculata (e.g., collection site, altitude, substrate, and collector) expect for the collecting number, which is "23435" rather than "23455" as in the protologue (Hattori 1985).However, several lines of evidence suggest "N.Kitagawa 23435" is the type of F. auriculata.
First, there are Hattori's handwritten contents (species name, "type", and "fig.") on the label of "N.Kitagawa 23435", which indicate that this specimen was examined, regarded as type, and used for drawing the illustration by Hattori himself (Fig. 1).Second, in the protologue of F. auriculata, Hattori (1985) cited only one specimen (N.Kitagawa 23455) and noted that this species was "known only from the type collection".Hattori annotated the upper right corner of the specimen label "この1点のみ" (= Only this one specimen) (Fig. 1), which corresponds with the distributional statement provided in the protologue (Hattori 1985).
The innermost female bracteole of "N.Kitagawa 23435" perfectly matches the original illustration (Fig. 2).It should be noted that other parts of plants illustrated in the protologue were not located.These evidences seem to support that this newly located specimen (N.Kitagawa 23435) is the one used by Hattori himself to prepare the protologue of F. auriculata (Hattori 1985).Therefore, the type citation of F. auriculata should be corrected in accordance with Art.9.2 of the International Code of Nomenclature (Turland et al. 2018), which is provided in the above section.
Due to the difficulty in assessing the condition of distributed exicattae specimens, only "N.Takaki s.n." (NICH 41848) was examined, confirming its alignment with the original description and illustration, particularly in its apically toothed leaves, the most distinguishing characteristic of this species.Consequently, this specimen was designated as the lectotype of P. takakii, despite some plants displaying mechanical damage and lacking intact leaf apices (data not shown).
There seems to be an inconsistent issue that Porella takakii was recorded as associating with "P.parvistipula (Steph.)"(Probably an orthographic variant of P. parvistipula (Steph.)S.Hatt.) in the protologue (Fig. 3) but occurring with P. grandiloba Lindb.(NICH 20909).Since the former species (P.parvistipula) has been listed as one of the synonyms of the latter (P.grandiloba), both statements are actually the same (Hattori 1978).(Hattori 1953).Only substrate, ecological habitat, collection site, altitude, date and collector were given.The red underline indicates the absent specific number.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Type citation of Porella takakii S.Hatt. in its protologue(Hattori 1953).Only substrate, ecological habitat, collection site, altitude, date and collector were given.The red underline indicates the absent specific number.